Parenthood

This is only the second post I've written since becoming a Mother. I guess that should say something! Where do I even begin?? Since the new year things have been crazy, but a good kind of crazy (for the most part). I think we're finally beginning to find our footing as parents. What once felt like a giant, "WHAT THE HECK DID WE DO!" has now been replaced with lots of laughter, smiles, and still a fair amount of exhaustion as we watch our little girl turn from baby into toddler. TODDLER. Are we really getting there already!?

This journey has been a giant whirlwind of extremely high highs and super low lows and every emotion in between. People always say you can't fully understand what having kids REALLY means until you have your own. I think it's fair to say we get that now! For better or for worse. But it's been so nice to finally feel like we're in a groove and experiencing more joy than hardship. For me, that turn happened shortly after I made the brilliant decision to do a show in February - an hour away in Orlando. My singing group is in Orlando but it's a relatively low commitment. How I thought, as a nursing mother, it was wise to do a full fledged production an hour away is beyond me. The upside is, it was one of the most fun show experiences I've had! "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" is a hilarious, light hearted cabaret style show and it really gave me an opportunity to challenge myself while just having FUN. But.....it took it out of me. Gracie, of course, decided to go through her worst sleep time yet during that show, so there was little sleeping happening for anyone. After the show wrapped, I decided it was time to start being a little smarter with my choices. In doing so, a lot of things shifted for the better, including her sleep!

We've had a few fun visits from friends and family over the last few months. Auntie Kristy, Lauren, Mernie and Henry have all popped in for quick trips! Moggy, Mom, and Dad all came out not only for my Christmas show but also for "I Love You, You're Perfect..." and also for a very special opportunity I had to sing with my fellow Legacy! members as a backup choir for Barry Manilow at the Amway Center! Talk about a cool experience! I have never sung in front of 30,000 people let alone standing behind a living legend. That was an experience I won't soon forget. I've realized I just have to keep doing shows if I want to get the family out to visit! :)

Bart has been hitting the CCS racing circuit this season which has added some chaos to his schedule. But he's getting the opportunity to race at some pretty cool tracks and hopefully soon, Gracie and I will be able to join him on the road! It's been a learning experience for him as he gets used to a new bike as well as warms up to racing with some of the top riders out there. We were able to come see him race in Daytona which was really fun. Unfortunately most of the races are not local like that, so it's nice to get to come be a part of it when they are! In May Bart participated in a FMRRA race up in Jennings, which is the local Florida series, and he took home a first place medal and two second place medals! I was pretty bummed Gracie and I weren't there to see it. But, after his races, he hurried home and surprised us on Mother's Day so we were able to spend the rest of the day together and hear all about it!

Aside from racing, Bart has been keeping extremely busy with the business, as usual. This May we had our biggest month EVER! Such an exciting milestone. TST has grown so rapidly since we moved to Florida. It really helps solidify, for me, our decision to move here as sometimes it gets tough when I think about the family aspect of it all. But we now have a staff of 10 people and things are just constantly growing and evolving with new products and projects constantly in the works. My role has changed quite a bit now that I'm working from home, but it's always so fun when I pop into the office and see a full house of people working to bring TST to a level we never could have even dreamed of.

Recently we finally decided to attempt our first little family vacation. We had yet to ever share a hotel room with Gracie, and we hadn't been scuba diving since our wedding! So we brought our nanny and her husband with us and decided to give it a go. Let's just sum it it up by saying, getting away for a quick scuba trip to Boca Raton isn't quite what it used to be. Gracie was sick and refused to sleep with us in the room, which ended with her in our bed tossing and turning and crying and playing all night in between us. Then it was up early for diving after basically no sleep. The dives themselves were fairly lackluster, and we watched a guy on our dive boat die. Ahh yes. A nice little getaway. We did have some fun moments on the trip, but overall it was not exactly the relaxing getaway we had in mind. My favorite moment was on the drive home. As we sat in silence, Gracie asleep in the back, glazed over looks on our faces, Bart asks in a legitimately inquisitive tone, "so...did we have fun!??!!?"

Needless to say, we're going to wait a bit before attempting THAT again.

Well, other than that, we've just been spending our days enjoying time together as a family of three. I recently completed my first olympic distance triathlon in preparation for my half Ironman in September, I sang in my third CFCA choir show, Bart's going to be doing some more racing in the coming months, and we just returned from 3 weeks in California (blog to follow). As my Dad always says, "no grass growing under our feet!"